If a guy wants to wear women’s clothing, how does that affect you to the point where you beat him up? It’s just cloth.

That’s a question that was our takeaway from today’s StoryCorps on NPR, the every-Friday-morning opportunity for people to tell their stories.

Vicky and Sissy Goodwin of Wyoming have now been married for 46 years.

“It was after we were engaged, and I thought, ‘Well, that’s not a big deal,'” she said. “But one of the hardest things was that people made fun of this person that I loved, so I wanted to protect you.”

Like the time he was beat up in front of their house.

“The guy kicked my teeth in,” Sissy said. “To have your son have to witness that was pretty terrible.”

And there was that one neighbor who came out with a knife one day and threatened to castrate him.

“I call those people fashion critics,” Sissy said. “But the younger generation, they don’t care what I wear.”

Once, his students dressed up for him.

“They all had pink shirts on and either pink or purple hair ribbons,” Sissy recalled. “The whole class. That told me a lot.”

By the way, if you’re a StoryCorps fan — and why wouldn’t you be — why don’t you record your own story?

In the past, you had to meet up with the StoryCorps crew, but no more.

It’s releasing an app in which you create a profile. Users can either prepare for an interview or go ahead and record one, the New York Times says. The stories of others are available to be browsed, and users can listen to each other’s postings.

About the blogger

Bob Collins has been with Minnesota Public Radio since 1992, emigrating to Minnesota from Massachusetts. He was senior editor of news in the ’90s, ran MPR’s political unit, created the MPR News regional website, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started several blogs, and every day laments that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.

NewsCut is a blog featuring observations about the news. It provides a forum for an online discussion and debate about events that might not typically make the front page. NewsCut posts are not news stories.